Math outside the classroom: Keeping them hooked

Dr. Arvind Gupta, Special to the Vancouver Sun05.07.2009

Using a declination angle instrument, a student attempts to gather data to calculate speed, angular velocity and related forces himself on the Wave Swinger ride, at Playland, during the annual BC's Brightest Minds competition in 2006.

After a long winter in the classroom, even the most dedicated students (and teachers) are gazing out the window, wishing they were outside in the sun. With summer break just around the corner, I find that students tend to get a little distracted, and disengaged.

Maybe it’s more than the weather. In each class, there are typically a few students who sail through the work in record time always eager for more, a few who get mired down and struggle to progress, and a few who are simply not interested in observing the desk-bound routine of math class. Whatever the source of a young person’s educational ennui, there’s no better time of year to engage in some extracurricular mathematics.

The trick is to embed mathematical ideas into activities outside the classroom and encourage kids to have fun with math — from local summer math camps and programs at local universities, to science fairs and math competitions, to playing games or sports and thinking about mechanics, probabilities, and statistics. Activities that use or reveal mathematics can illuminate school lessons and open up new levels of enjoyment and achievement in math and science. Here are a few examples:

Spring is the season of math contests, the majority of which are designed to be fun, challenging, and educational tools for students at all levels and abilities to stretch their mathematical legs, and to assess their problem-solving skills.

The B.C. Secondary School Mathematics Contest is coming up on May 9. Mathematics competitions organized by The Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing sponsors numerous open contests, which include the Gauss (grades 7 and 8) beginning May 13, as well as the Pascal (grade 9), Cayley (grade 10), Fermat (grade 11), and Euclid (grade 12). More complex contests for mathematically-advanced students include the Fryer (grade 9), Galois (grade 10) and Hypatia (grade 11) competitions. Top students at the senior-level are eligible to compete in the Sun Life Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge, which in addition to providing an engaging extracurricular math activity, can lead to an invitation to the Canadian Mathematics Olympiad. Beyond the acclaim and scholarships awarded to top competitors, the contests can be an excellent way for students to develop confidence in their mathematical abilities.

For children in grades five to seven, the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences runs Elmacon, which gives students the chance to experience math as an exciting sport. This calculator-free contest is taking place on Saturday, May 9, 2009. For more information, visit www.elmacon.org.

To help prepare for math contests, reinforce class lessons, or simply for fun, a new free, online, multiplayer quiz game, MathAmaze, is being launched in May 2009. The game, currently in beta testing, has already attracted 11,000 registered users and allows elementary and high school students to challenge themselves with the interesting puzzle-type questions that they would encounter in mathematics contests. MathAmaze includes questions at many grade levels from competitions across Canada, so students can develop their math abilities using questions tailored to their skill level.

MathAmaze (Math en jeu in French) was created by Université Laval mathematics professor, Olympic commentator and TV host Dr. Jean-Marie De Koninck and his Sciences et Mathématiques en Action team. With the support of MITACS (the math network that I head), MathAmaze is being developed into a fully bilingual, tournament-type of game that will debut in May during Science and Physics Days hosted by the Pacific National Exhibition.

Taking math even farther away from the classroom, Amusement Park Science & Physics is taking play in May at Playland in Vancouver. It’s a fantastic math-related program with sessions for kids in grade 4 and up. The program enhances students’ knowledge of science and math while learning where these concepts are used in the world around them. Also taking place in May is the BC’s Brightest Minds Competition, a one-day physics competition at Playland for two-person teams of BC physics students. The PNE, in partnership with UBC, offers a $3000 scholarship to the winning team!

Whether your child is stuck in mathematical rut or is performing brilliantly and looking for more engagement, keep these activities in mind for expanding and strengthening their interest and ability in mathematics. Have a fun and educational summer, everyone, and thanks for reading.

Dr. Arvind Gupta is a father of three, a mathematician and scientific director of MITACS, a national research network focused on connecting university-based math researchers with companies and other organizations to solve real-world challenges. For more information on MITACS, visit www.mitacs.ca.

Apply to attend SFU Math Camps, summer day camps for mathematically promising grade 9 and 10 students, in partnership with the Canadian Mathematics Society and the Pacific Institute for Mathematical Sciences:

Organize a science fair of your own with the help of Science Buddies, an excellent web resource for students, teachers and parents, K-12, for science projects. It offers everything from a topic selection guide, to explanations of the scientific process, directions for projects, links to tools, techniques and references, a guide for teachers about how to set up, plan, and work through a science fair; and tips for parents who have children involved. http://www.sciencebuddies.org/

For additional programs and information, check with your child’s teachers to see what kinds of extracurricular activities and programs might be available through your school or district. Also, check your library and community centre listings for books, programs and activities that might encourage your child’s interest in math and science. For intermediate and middle schoolers, find novels at the library about inventors, child scientists, and problem solvers to model the use of mathematics through a fictional character.

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